Meeting the administrative challenges

Transposition into Scots Law

38. The revised Bathing Water Directive stipulates that Member
States have until 24 March 2008 to transpose its requirements into
national law. This is a relatively short period of time in which to
produce and enact a piece of legislation, but is not in itself
expected to pose a significant problem.

39. The Bathing Water Directive does not allow a great deal of
flexibility in implementation by individual Member States. As such,
it is anticipated that transposition will largely be a
straightforward adoption of the Directive's requirements. Areas
where debate is likely include the possibility of delegating rights
and responsibilities to national agencies and to local authorities,
and in establishing links with The Water Environment and Water
Services Act (Scotland) 2003 and The Water Environment (Controlled
Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2005.

40. In transposing the Directive, the Scottish Executive will
continue to work closely with key stakeholders and will:

Produce draft regulations to transpose the Bathing Water
Directive by March 2007;

Complete a consultation on those draft regulations by October
2007; and

Lay the regulations before Parliament before the end of 2007,
with them coming into force shortly afterwards.

Identification of bathing waters

41. In addition to its transposition, other administrative
challenges are contained within the requirements of the Directive.
From 2008, Member States will be required to identify all bathing
waters annually prior to the start of the bathing season. This is a
change to the current situation in Scotland, whereby identified
waters are considered to be bathing waters until further
notice.

42. The Bathing Water Review Panel met in 2005 and will meet
again in 2006 and 2007 to review Scotland's currently identified
bathing waters. The Panel has been asked to invite applications
from all sections of the community for new identifications and to
review the designation of those bathing waters with the lowest
recorded usage (in both the revised and the current Directive, the
major determining factor in defining a bathing water is usage).

43. It is expected that as a result of this review process, any
waters which are not currently identified as bathing waters, and
which should be identified as bathing waters, must be identified
prior to the start of the 2008 bathing season. It is also expected
that as a result of this process, any currently identified bathing
waters which do not meet the stipulated criteria will be
de-designated prior to the start of the 2008 bathing season.

44. Therefore, it is not anticipated that the Bathing Water
Review Panel would continue to meet in its present form beyond its
currently funded lifespan (until 31 March 2008). Instead, such a
panel could be asked to conduct further reviews to coincide with
the publication of the second, third and fourth River Basin
Management Plans required by the Water Framework Directive, in
2015, 2021 and 2027.

45. To meet public participation requirements (see section '
Revised Bathing Water Directive - Meeting the public
participation and information provision challenges' below),
the Scottish Executive recognises the need to develop a mechanism
to enable the submission of, and to review applications to alter
the list of identified bathing waters which may reasonably arise
from time to time between the periodic reviews set out in paragraph
44.

Defining the bathing season

46. The revised Directive requires that the length of the
bathing season shall be annually defined before the start of the
bathing season from 2008. The Scottish Executive will review the
length of the current bathing season (1 June - 15 September) in
conjunction with
SEPA and
other stakeholders. Any proposal to alter the current bathing
season will be included in the consultation on draft regulations
referred to in paragraph 40.

47. The bathing season is defined by the Directive as "the
period during which large numbers of bathers can be expected". It
is not anticipated that this period will alter significantly in a
short time. Bather numbers will drive reviews of the list of
identified bathing waters. It would therefore seem sensible to use
that same review to consider whether or not we need to vary the
length of the bathing season. Doing this work at the same time
would allow us to make a single announcement regarding both the
list of sites and the length of the season.

Establishing a monitoring calendar

48. It is a requirement of the revised Directive that a
monitoring calendar for each bathing water shall be established
before the start of each bathing season, and for the first time
before the start of the 2008 bathing season. As the established
national competent authority for sampling these waters is
SEPA, it
is likely that the monitoring calendar will be considered to be a
matter for
SEPA, and
be a delegated responsibility in the draft regulations referred to
in paragraph 40 above.